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Covid-19: Benin registers first death and number of fatalities in Africa exceeds 440

Benin announced this Monday its first death from covid-19, a disease that African authorities say has infected nearly 9,500 people and caused more than 440 deaths on the continent.

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The announcement was made on Monday morning by Benin's Minister of Health, Benjamin Hounkpatin, who says that this is a 43-year-old woman suffering from drepanocytosis who had been in a private clinic for a week.

The woman, who died on Sunday, is said to have made a "trip to a country affected by the covid-19 pandemic", something which, combined with "worsening respiratory difficulties" led the Benin authorities to suspect that she was infected with the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

At the end of March, Benin's President Patrice Talon announced that the country does not have "the means of rich countries" to comply with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations on social isolation to stem the spread of covid-19.

The country in West Africa has accounted for 23 cases of infection since the pandemic began, and five have already been considered recovered.

According to the African Union Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) bulletin, with data up to 3pm on Monday, the number of recorded deaths now stands at 442, with confirmed infections reaching 9,457.

The CDC Africa also registered 848 patients recovered from the infection.

The bulletin does not, however, include the most recent data from Sao Tome and Principe, which announced its first cases on Monday.

The four cases announced by the Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe, Jorge Bom Jesus, bring to 52 the number of countries and territories in Africa affected by the covid-19 pandemic.

Until this Monday, Sao Tome and Principe was the only Portuguese-speaking country without any case of infection by the new coronavirus.

According to the CDC Africa, most African countries (39) already have local transmission of the disease, while 12 countries register only imported infections.

So far, no cases have been reported in Comoros, the Sahrawi Republic and Lesotho.

Guinea-Bissau is now the most registered African Portuguese-speaking country, having confirmed 33 people with infections by the new coronavirus.

Angola, which already has two deaths, has since Saturday registered six more confirmed cases of the disease, now totalling 16.

Mozambique has 10 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus infection.

Cape Verde has a total of seven cases of infection since the beginning of the pandemic, including one dead.

In Equatorial Guinea, which is part of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, 16 positive cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been confirmed.

In the context of measures to combat the pandemic, the CDC Africa now accounts for 43 countries with totally closed borders, seven with suspended air links, three with entry and exit restrictions and two with entry restrictions for nationals of countries at risk.

The new coronavirus, responsible for the covid-19 pandemic, has already infected more than 1.2 million people worldwide, more than 70,000 of whom have died.

Of the cases of infection, more than 240,000 are considered cured.

After the outbreak broke out in China in December, it spread worldwide, leading the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a pandemic situation.

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